While the world grapples with the current COVID-19 pandemic,
there has been progress with confirmed COVID-19 patients using a modality
common to hypnosis.

As confirmed patients must be treated in isolation due to
the highly infectious nature of the coronavirus, patient anxiety and sleep
disturbance increased significantly after going into isolation. Furthermore, drugs to assist patients with
sleep can inhibit the respiratory system and worsen the condition. In an effort to determine how to combat these
effects, a study was conducted in which one group of patients received 30
minutes of progressive muscle relaxation daily in addition to their routine
care and treatment while a second group of patients only received their normal
routine care and treatment. The patients
who took part in progressive muscle relaxation reported sleeping much better
with greatly decreased anxiety1.
This only naturally leads to better overall mindset of the patient and
potentially better outcomes in combination with normal patient care.

Progressive muscle relaxation is commonly used in
hypnosis. If you’re having trouble
dealing with the pandemic, whether it be anxiety, stress, etc., hypnosis may
help you navigate these tough times. If
you’d like to learn more, call 210-325-1567.
Online sessions are available.

Do
you suffer from anxiety? If so, you’re
not alone. The National Institute of
Medical Health estimates that over 19% of the population in the US (over 60
million people!) has had an anxiety disorder in the past year.

If you’re unsure whether you have anxiety, people with anxiety
disorders frequently have intense, excessive and persistent worry and fear
about everyday situations. Often, anxiety disorders involve repeated episodes
of sudden feelings of intense anxiety and fear or terror that reach a peak
within minutes (panic attacks).

These
feelings of anxiety and panic may interfere with daily activities, are
difficult to control, are out of proportion to the actual danger and can last a
long time. Someone with an anxiety disorder may avoid places or situations to
prevent these feelings. Symptoms may start during childhood or the teen years
and continue into adulthood.

Whatever form of anxiety you have, hypnosis can be
helpful in dealing with anxiety. In
fact, studies have shown this to be true.
In particular, one study has shown that hypnosis is an effective
treatment for anxiety including state
anxiety (e.g., prior to tests, surgery and medical procedures) and
anxiety-related disorders, such as headaches and irritable bowel syndrome1. Another study of
217 patients that were diagnosed with clinical anxiety, showed that following
the hypnotic intervention 160 (74%) were no longer clinically anxious. A further 51 patients (23.5%) inproved but
remained in the dysfunctional range, and only 6 patients failed to show any
reduction in their Hospital Anxiety and Depression scores after therapy2.

Left
untreated, anxiety can affect performance, relationships and overall
well-being. If you’d like to learn more
about how hypnosis can help, please call 210-325-1567.

Are you experiencing depression or do you suffer from some or all of the
symptoms of depression such as;

sadness

tiredness

trouble focusing or concentrating

unhappiness

anger

irritability

frustration

isolation

loss of interest in pleasurable or fun activities?

If so,
you’re not alone. Major depression
is one of the most common mental disorders in the United States. In fact, it’s estimated that over 16 million adults
(6.7%) have had at least one major depressive episode in any given year. For
some individuals, major depression
can result in severe impairments that interfere with or limit one’s ability to
carry out major life activities. In
children and adolescents,
depression may cause low self-esteem and guilt, poor
concentration, and frequent absence from school. Depression may be difficult to spot in older adults.

Depression is very treatable. But,
only about half of all Americans who
are diagnosed with depression in
a given year get treatment. Those who do seek treatment wait months or years to
get help.

There are a number of causes of depression, each with a differing affect
on our psyche.

However, if
you suffer from depression, recent studies suggest hypnosis is a very effective
way of alleviating the symptoms of depression. In an examination of data from a number of
independent studies, these studies indicated the average participant receiving
hypnosis showed more improvement than about 76% of control participants. Furthermore, other studies showed that after
lengthy follow-up, the average
participant treated with hypnosis showed more improvement than about 51% of
control participants1.

If you want help, don’t delay in calling San Antonio Medical Hypnosis at
210-325-1567 to get the help you deserve.

Do you suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)?

Do you suffer from post-traumatic stress
disorder (PTSD)? The
increased intensity of modern life and the experiences in combat situations
have brought on enormous stress and have led many people to develop
posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Hypnosis is one of the treatment methods
available to professionals and has been proven to provide fast, reliable
results in multiple studies.

A physical or emotional event can result in trauma which produces a sudden discontinuity in cognitive and emotional experience that often persists after the trauma is over. This may result in symptoms such as psychogenic amnesia, intrusive reliving of the event as if it were recurring, numbing of responsiveness, and hypersensitivity to stimuli. Furthermore, dissociative symptoms (i.e. memory loss that may involve people, places, or events, the feeling of being physically detached from the body, as if watching a movie of oneself, emotional detachment, lack of sense of self, consequences of dissociation, such as relationship struggles, loss of jobs, anxiety, depression, and thoughts of self-harm) during and soon after traumatic experience predict later PTSD. Hypnosis can be especially helpful as hypnosis provides controlled access to memories that may otherwise be kept out of consciousness. New uses of hypnosis in the psychotherapy of PTSD victims involve coupling access to the dissociated traumatic memories with positive restructuring of those memories. Hypnosis can be used to help patients face and bear a traumatic experience by embedding it in a new context, acknowledging helplessness during the event, and yet linking that experience with remoralizing memories such as efforts at self-protection, shared affection with friends who were killed, or the ability to control the environment at other times.

In this way, hypnosis can be used to provide controlled access to memories that are then placed into a broader perspective. Patients can be taught self-hypnosis techniques that allow them to work through traumatic memories and thereby reduce spontaneous unbidden intrusive recollections.

In a previous blog on this site (Hypnosis Can be Effective in Managing Pain), it is mentioned that hypnosis can be helpful in reducing patients’ pain and anxiety during surgery, prior to chemotherapy treatments for cancer patients and alleviating chronic tension headaches.

If fact, hypnosis is likely to be effective for most people suffering from diverse forms of pain. While hypnosis is typically used as a procedure to facilitate other types of therapies and treatments, evidence for the effectiveness of hypnosis to decrease sensitivity to pain – known as hypno-analgesia – has been supplemented by well-controlled experiments. In their 2003 review of controlled clinical studies, Dr. D. R. Patterson and fellow psychologist Mark Jensen, PhD, found that hypno-analgesia is associated with significant reductions in: ratings of pain, need for analgesics or sedation, nausea and vomiting, and length of stay in hospitals. Hypnosis has also been associated with better overall outcome after medical treatment and greater physiological stability. Surgeons and other health providers have reported significantly higher degrees of satisfaction with their patients treated with hypnosis than with their other patients.

Hypno-analgesia is likely to decrease acute and chronic pain in most individuals, and to save them money in surgical procedures. Hypnotic analgesia has been used successfully in a number of interventions in many clinics, hospitals, and burn care centers, and dental offices. For acute pain, it has proven effective in interventional radiology, various surgical procedures (e.g., appendectomies, tumor excisions), the treatment of burns (dressing changes and the painful removal of dead or contaminated skin tissue), child-birth labor pain, bone marrow aspiration pain, and pain related to dental work, especially so with children. Chronic pain conditions for which hypnosis has been used successfully include, among others, headache, backache, fibromyalgia, carcinoma-related pain, temporal mandibular disorder pain, and mixed chronic pain.

If you’re having trouble with acute or chronic pain, call (210) 325-1567.

Hypnosis for the Relief and Control of Pain, American Psychological Association, July 2, 2004

Does the thought of going to the dentist scare you? If so, you are not alone. While everyone agrees oral health is extremely important, the main problem encountered during routine dental treatment is anxiety and fear called dental phobia. Even a medical treatment of the oral region under local anesthesia procedures is a cause for irregular visits in dental clinics, which, in consequence, may lead to an increase more severe forms of dental diseases. Clinical hypnosis can be a non-invasive therapeutic option to increase treatment comfort both for the patients and dentists.

Hypnotic dentistry or Hypnodontics, is defined as the art and science of using hypnosis to induce comfortable and painfree dental visits. Hypnosis is used to reduce stress caused by anxiety and fear or dental phobia and induce anesthesia so that less medication is used. Hard to manage or on co-operative patients and pediatrics often present the majority of problems the dentist encounters in their daily routine. They take extra time and require special consideration by the dentist and the assisting staff. There are multiple reasons why such patients are fearful, tense, nervous and anxious before, during, and even after the dental visit. These patients will complain of extreme anxiety prior to a simple check-up and repeatedly request tranquilizers to help them cope up with the stress. Hypnosis can easily alleviate the tension, nervousness and unreasonable fear of pain often exhibited by these patients. Hypnosis has also been known to be beneficial in elimination or reduction of bruxism (i.e. teeth grinding). The hypnotherapist should meet with this type of dental patient two or three days prior to the scheduled dental appointment. Hypnosis may be used independently or as an additional option with other forms of treatment for best results.1

Trouble with Headaches?

Migraine headache is a type of headache with signs and symptoms of sensitivity to light, smells, or sounds, eye pain, and sometimes nausea and vomiting. Triggers for migraine include foods, stress, and oversleeping.

Migraine imposes major personal and social costs upon individuals and society . In an Australian study on the cost of migraine, Parry (1993) found that 68,000 work days, 33,200 school/university days, and 167,300 days of reduced activity were lost to migraine and other headaches . That same study also revealed that, while migraine sufferers do not always seek medical help, there were some 566,000 reported visits to doctors, specialists, and hospital clinics for the complaint . An American study found that headache is one of the 10 most common complaints presented to physicians, accounting for more than 18 million outpatient visits per year (Osterhaus, Townsend, Gandek, & Ware, 1994) . In particular, migraines account for substantial morbidity and cost, resulting in an estimated 3 million bed days each month, and lost labour cost ranging from $6 .5 billion to $17 billion per annum . The pain, duration and frequency of migraine can be debilitating.

Studies show hypnosis can be effective in reducing chronic headaches

Given the considerable costs, both to the community in lost work, and to the individual in pain and personal and economic expense, finding appropriate treatments for migraine is of importance . Studies show hypnosis can be effective in treating frequent headaches:

One study investigated a psychological intervention involving a single group session and participation (using a pre-recorded audio tape) with self-hypnosis, relaxation, and vascular manipulation . The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of an hypnotic intervention on the duration, frequency, and severity of migraines . It was expected that a successful treatment impacting positively on migraine duration, frequency, and severity may also result in a reduction in the amount of migraine medication required by subjects .

The final selection of 32 volunteers was made on the basis of specified selection criteria, and the signing of a participation consent form . The selection criteria included the requirements that participants be clinically diagnosed migraine sufferers, that they experience at least two migraines per month, and that they would not undergo any other drug-free migraine treatment in the course of this study.

Another study notes evidence is that shows hypnosis has been an effective treatment for recurrent headaches in children. Two adolescents with continuing chronic daily headaches were taught self-hypnosis through careful attention to individual strengths and finding the hypnotic elements within the clinical encounters. Self-reports of intensity, frequency, and duration of headaches described substantial benefit from learning and practicing self-hypnosis after little to no benefit from pharmacologic and other nonpharmacologic therapies. These results and analogous success with several other adolescents with chronic daily headache support the further use of self-hypnosis training for this condition. As a self-regulation technique that is quickly and easily learned by most young people, self-hypnosis training holds considerable promise for effectively treating and perhaps preventing chronic daily headaches in children and adolescents.

Do you have IBS? Try hypnosis.

If you suffer from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), the gastrointestinal disorder characterized by abdominal pain, distension, and altered bowel habits, you know that there remains a significant lack of effective medical treatments for IBS. However, a number of studies have shown that hypnosis, in conjunction with normal visits to your medical doctor, can be beneficial in helping you deal with this disorder. One study concluded that hypnosis consistently produces significant results and improves the main symptoms of IBS in the majority of patients, as well as positively affecting non-colonic symptoms. When evaluated according to the efficacy guidelines of the Clinical Psychology Division of American Psychological Association, the use of hypnosis with IBS qualifies for the highest level of acceptance as being both efficacious and specific (“Hypnosis and Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Review of Efficacy and Mechanism of Action”, Tan, Hammond & Gurrala, American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, September 2011). Another study noted that “Hypnosis is the psychological treatment approach most frequently reported to have a demonstrable therapeutic impact on IBS symptoms” (“Hypnosis Treatment for Severe Irritable Bowel Syndrome Investigation of Mechanism and Effects on Symptoms”, Olafur Palsson, PsyD, Marsha J. Turner, MS, David A. Johnson, MD, Charles K. Burnett, PhD, MPH, and William E. Whitehead, PhD, Digestive Diseases and Sciences, Vol. 47, No. 11 (November 2002)). These reflect just a small sample of studies that show hypnosis as a viable treatment.

Pain that persists for longer than 6 months is referred to as chronic pain. Does this sound familiar? Unrelieved chronic pain can cause considerable suffering, physical limitations, and emotional distress. Chronic pain is one of the most common reasons for seeking medical care but often persists despite treatment with analgesics and physical therapies. For example, epidemiologic studies indicate that approximately 11% to 45% of individuals in the United States experience chronic back pain, patients with advanced cancer often suffer persistent pain, and chronic pain is the most common reason for the use of complementary and alternative therapies (Astin, Journal of the American Medical Association, 1998).

Interest in hypnosis for pain management has increased with evidence that hypnosis can reduce pain (and costs) associated with medical procedures (Lang et al., 2000), and there are now an adequate number of controlled studies of hypnosis to draw meaningful conclusions from the literature regarding chronic pain (Jensen & Patterson, Journal of Behavioral Medicine,. 2006; Montgomery, DuHamel, & Redd, International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 2000; Patterson & Jensen, Psychological Bulletin, 2003). Hypnosis in the treatment of chronic pain generally typically involves a hypnotic induction with suggestions for relaxation and comfort. Posthypnotic suggestions may be given for reduced pain that can continue beyond the session or that the patient can quickly and easily create a state of comfort using a cue (i.e., taking a deep breath and exhaling as eye lids close). The focus of hypnosis in the treatment of chronic pain also often involves teaching the patient self-hypnosis or providing tape recordings of hypnosis sessions that can be used to reduce pain on a daily basis outside the sessions. Some people experience an immediate reduction in pain severity following hypnosis treatment, whereas others can obtain reduction in pain with repeated practice of self-hypnosis or hypnosis sessions. Additional studies have shown:

SURGERY: Hypnosis given during surgical radiology not only diminishes patients’ pain and anxiety, but also shortens surgical time and reduces complications from the procedure. (Lancet, 2000)

CANCER: Many cancer patients suffer nausea and vomiting not only after chemotherapy, but before treatment. In a study of 16 subjects who normally experienced these symptoms, hypnosis alleviated prechemotherapy sickness in ail of them. (Oncology, 2000)

Suffering from Depression in San Antonio?

Early last year (March 2017), the World Health Organization (WHO) released a powerful statement from its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, declaring depression “the leading cause of ill health and disability worldwide.” WHO estimates that more than 300 million people worldwide are now suffering a diagnosable depression. This reflects an increase of more than 18% between 2005 and 2015.

In today’s environment, a number of factors contribute to the notion that depression is far more a social problem than a medical one. The rapid rise of depression in just a few years reflects the chaotic world we live in, evidenced by our individual and collective higher levels of distress in many life arenas.

Hypnosis is an effective tool for teaching numerous beneficial skills which do notcreate a dependence on medications, such as effective coping skills, problem solving
skills, social skills, behavioral skills, and even basic relaxation skills whichcan help alleviate sleep disturbance. It can also help people achieve a happier mood and decrease or dispel the pessimistic and negative thoughts that general accompany depression. These are all skills that are well established as essential to recovery from depression.

Medicalizing depression has done a great disservice to people by misleading them into thinking the problem is in their neurochemistry rather than their circumstances and their depressing perspectives about their circumstances. The scientific evidence has grown exponentially in recent years that makes it clear we need to do much more to help people than drug them with medications of questionable safety and efficacy.

If you are suffering from depression, hypnosis may be provide a safe, effective and non-pharmaceutical way to deal with the issue. To get help, call 210-325-1567.

April 7th is World Health Day. Last year, WHO highlighted its “Depression: Let’s Talk” campaign and began its one-year global campaign encouraging people to begin to talk openly about their depression and start to get the help they need.

Are you having trouble getting sleep?

Have you heard of the about the new movie ‘Baa-Baa Land’? No, not the critically acclaimed award-winning movie starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone ‘La-La Land’. Baa-Baa Land is an 8-hour move which depicts sheep eating grass in a field….for eight hours. The purpose of the movie is not to intrigue you with an intricate love story but to make you sleepy. For someone suffering from insomnia, this is one way to try to induce sleep, however, a much more effective way to combat insomnia is through hypnosis, and it doesn’t take eight hours!!!

If you’re having trouble sleeping, hypnosis may be the solution to your problem. In fact, Hypnos is the Greek word for sleep and although a person
in hypnosis isn’t actually asleep, the process for entering trance is the same process as drifting off into a deep and healthy sleep. In fact, a new study conducted at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland is the first to assess, via measures of brain-wave activity, “the positive impact of hypnosis hypnosis has on deep sleep and to show that it is, in fact, real,” noted one of the researchers.

At issue is the desire to boost so-called deep sleep, also known as slow-wave sleep. This type of sleep “often correlates with the most restorative sleep, a time for your brain to process an rejuvenate from the challenges of the day”, explains a professor of neurology and sleep medicine at the Oregon Health and Science Center at the University of Portland.

So, why struggle through countless nights of restlessness and lack of sleep when you can take part in a few hypnosis sessions and overcome your problem for the long-term?

Call 210-325-1567 and be on your way to better sleep and a better life.

Does Hypnosis Work?

Are you skeptical on whether hypnosis actually works? If so, you can rest assured that the answer is an emphatic Yes!

In addition to large amount of research that states the effectiveness of hypnotherapy, a number of well-known renowned organizations fully endorse hypnosis as being effective in a number of areas. In fact, the British Medical Association endorsed hypnotherapy as being “frequently effective in relieving pain, procuring sleep, and alleviating many functional ailments.” In 1955, the British Medical Association’s Psychological Medicine Group again questioned the effectiveness of hypnosis and confirmed the findings from 1892. Furthermore, in 2001, the British Psychological Association noted that hypnosis may be beneficial in the “management and treatment of a wide range of conditions and problems encountered in the practice of medicine, psychiatry and psychotherapy.”

However, Britain isn’t the only country buying into hypnosis. In 1958, the American Medical Association release a report which noted that “Hypnosis has a recognized place” as a “useful technique in the treatment of certain illnesses when employed by qualified medical and dental personnel.” As a result, the report recognized hypnotherapy as an orthodox (i.e. normal) medical treatment. In addition, the American Psychological Association has endorsed hypnotherapy, confirming its effectiveness.

So, the experts have noted hypnosis as an effective method of relief for a number of different issues. What’s stopping you? If you are looking for an effective method to relieve pain, stop smoking, manage anxiety and stress or any number of issues, hypnosis may be your answer!